


Intonation

by PotatoJesus



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: I'm so sorry, Literally just death, M/M, major character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-10
Updated: 2015-12-10
Packaged: 2018-05-06 00:28:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5395772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotatoJesus/pseuds/PotatoJesus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A friend said she'd love to see Erwin and Levi die together and finals are here so...<br/>Yeah.<br/>I'm sorry I wrote this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intonation

There were way too many sounds, far too many vibrations running along the ground and walls, displacing the world around them and shattering the more delicate structures. But that didn’t matter, it didn’t even phase him. The only thing threatening to break him apart were the shards digging in his ears, remnants of a voice that had been so resonant it had kept all the white noise, all the screams, at bay.

Levi had never realized that simply with his timbre, Erwin had wrapped him in an impenetrable armor from these horrors.

And with a rasp, that comfort was tearing away from him.

“Levi… please stop this.”

“No.” He thought he had said the word only once, firmly; yet now he noticed that his mouth was continuing to move mindlessly around that same shaky syllable, and it tasted like blood and salt on his tongue.

“You’re killing me.” A weak grip, in place of the one that had always shoved him forward and offered him strength, tugged at the back of his torn shirt.

He couldn’t help the bark of crazed laughter, “I’m trying to save you-”

“It’s beyond-” A cough broke through, unforgiving, “Beyond that.”

“So am I.”

He didn’t know how he kept going, where this power of his came from - well, it wasn’t, objectively, from his legs. No, those were crushed somewhere along the line. For all he knew they weren’t there - but that didn’t matter, it didn’t even phase him.

Only that weakening voice behind him…

No response came, and that made him work harder, dragging himself and that ridiculous giant of a man behind him in a desperate half crawl towards the nearest house. His strength, all of it should be gone - it was in direct proportion to Erwin’s, wasn’t it? He knew, he knew: if he still moved, then Erwin…

Glancing back he felt a hitch in his own breath, hearing too clearly the blood-red painted edge, bubbling and catching on his lips. He tried to ignore the irony, how maybe the only reason he could continue to move forwards was the lessening of Erwin’s body mass behind him; but he didn’t want to think about those closed eyes, that still chest.

No, there was a house, a refuge, and he had managed to drag them there.

Why, why was there so much noise?

There had never been this much before, had there? Even now, when the screams his soldiers let out had long dissipated - fuck, this _ringing_. It was back, this horrifying sound of weakness, of faintness returning to him from the earliest days of the dark underground realm he’d escaped.

But he couldn’t - couldn’t…

Couldn’t what?

As he dragged Erwin closer, against a wall, he noticed a window across from them that looked out over a field, but he didn’t give it a second thought. Finally, looking at what was left of his commander, he began to face reality. He heard the fabrication of the building slowly degrading around them, assaulted by the thrashing ground outside. “Oi, old man! Oi, I said get up!”  
His own voice was firm now, somehow. It was just as strong as if he were yelling at Erwin to raise his head off that damn office desk and put away those papers - let Levi clean… And that sense of reality slipped away for an instance.

In seconds Erwin would wake up, and that deep timbre would shake and crumble all the nightmares that would try to reach him in the dark of night. The world would brighten from this terror around them. This would only be a spectral image, obliterated soon by the morning light that loved to play off that golden hair, those intense eyes, that stupid bolo tie -

But that hair was drenched in dried blood, Erwin’s signature charm had somehow disappeared on the way here, and those eyes didn’t even open.

“Erwin Smith.” Levi leaned heavily against a trembling wall, “You bastard. You _bastard_ , get up.” When there was no response, he whispered, “Don’t you dare make me die alone.”

Some horrific roar echoed nearby, and it was so awfully loud, so all consuming he felt himself shaking.

“You ass, those brats got away. You did it, you saved them, just like always. So wake the fuck _up_ , don’t you go feeling sorry for yourself and-”

He may have gripped the man’s wrist too hard - _did that even matter anymore_ \- but it caused two bright blue eyes, confused and a little wayward, to reveal themselves. “Levi?”

“Idiot…” Relief filled him, “Don’t fall asleep so early on me, old man. I’m not ready yet.”

Erwin looked around, seeming to have to regather the series of events that led them here, and his gaze alighted on a bookcase, “I always wanted a library…”

“ _Fuck_ , Erwin.” Levi shifted so he was leaning against his armless side, lessening the pain from his own wounds as he relaxed, “Couldn’t even bother to be coherent right now?”

“You would have been beautiful in a library.”

“What the actual hell, Erwin?”  
“Those children wanted to see the ocean…”

Realizing there might be nothing he could do, Levi gave up on his hope of conversation and muttered, “Look who payed attention…” Slipping his hand, unnoticed, into what was left of Erwin’s, a sigh exited his lungs, tripping over the blood lacing his throat. Not to be outdone, a ragged cough shifted from some unknown wound hiding within the larger man’s torso. Levi snorted to himself.

After a moment more, Erwin managed, “I just wanted to see you curled up at home, safe, somewhere - anywhere.” The sentence seemed almost too much for him, but he forced himself to say more - he _always_ was making himself go the extra mile, wasn’t he? “You deserved that at least. To be safe from… from…”

“Titans?” Levi asked sarcastically, the weakness starting to numb his lower half - unable to quite feel his stomach anymore. “The nobles? Dirt? What?”

“Me.” Erwin tilted his head in a manner so very wrong that it denoted damage somewhere along his neck… maybe. Levi wasn’t really a doctor, but he knew whatever it was probably hurt like hell and wouldn’t afford much more time to them. Even so, the man dealt with the pain in order to look down at him better, “‘m sorry. For everything.”

“Tch.” Levi met those eyes, ignoring how the crispness was leaving Erwin’s speech, how his voice was no more than a whisper, and his tone was broken by high-pitched shards, “You have a lot to be sorry for, don’t you?”

There was no answer but a sad, rapidly dulling gaze.

“I’ll make this fast, ‘cause you need your sleep, old man…” He forced himself through immense pain - if Erwin could do it, so could he - to angle himself up and kiss his commander’s cheek, “But just know you never have to apologize to me for anything. You’ve been my safety and my home this whole time.”

He felt a soft pressure squeeze his hand back, sending a wave of calm to rise over his skin. Those dim eyes let off one more spark, with a small upwards tip to the lips below them.

And then, because the world was cruel, the pressure, the timbre, the strength - every last bit of it - disappeared, and Levi was left alone to die. A manic laugh rasped out, “At least you got to selfishly go first - you bastard…” He coughed, finding it humorous that he’d seemed to catch it from Erwin. He settled himself closer to the rapidly cooling body, “I hope those brats find their ocean… wish I…”

The house before him dipped out and away into darkness, but he fought to come back, even though there was nothing there for him anymore. He gasped, his heart still stumbling over breathes and pulsing beats - why, why, why?

“Wish I… could have seen…” He struggled desperately to speak the words, to keep himself tethered to this room for a bit longer, “But you’re always dragging… dragging me with you…”

No response was forthcoming.

“Tch.”

And because the world was also beautiful, he watched the sunset through that useless window, through a moat of crumbling dust. He heard the roars of creatures that should never have existed, felt the tremors of those malignant gods in his very bones…

And he remembered.

In those last moments, the life of safety he’d shared with Erwin shattered and fell. In those last breaths, he watched gorgeous shards of memories flit across his vision and color the floating debris with joy.

He let the ringing consume him, the hallucinations assail him - sensations of nostalgia brightening in a crescendo before beginning to fall himself, and he wondered at last if Erwin had experienced the same, with that gentle ghost of a smile playing across his lips.


End file.
